Lean times, local bounty

Monday

For many, there’s not much doubt about the taste difference between a tomato plucked, sun-ripened, from the backyard, and one bounced in on a truck from halfway across the country.

For many, there’s not much doubt about the taste difference between a tomato plucked, sun-ripened, from the backyard, and one bounced in on a truck from halfway across the country.Economies of scale may have tipped the balance in favor of large-scale grocery stores, but with food costs on the rise, some are swinging back toward the older model of eating homegrown.“This model of eating trucked-in food does not make sense ecologically or economically. We raped the land by having a monoculture in the South for cotton. Right now, the amount of corn we grow throughout the country is ridiculous, most of it for biofuels and diesel or animal feed,” said Andrew Grace, a self-described foodie and advocate for locally grown food.A study by the Leopold Center at the University of Iowa estimated that the average item on an American’s plate traveled 1,500 to 2,500 miles to get there, mostly in trucks burning $4-a-gallon diesel fuel. Corn drives the commodities market up, with the growing demand for ethanol. Soybean prices have risen because farmers who formerly planted it are switching to corn. The soybean demand hasn’t changed, but the supply has fallen. So prices go up.“Prices are definitely going up,” said Joe Brown, an assistant professor in New College at the University of Alabama, who teaches in a program about sustainable food systems. “People are going to have to start taking stock, and thinking more about food, about the economies of it, if not just the taste, the health benefits and the ethics of eating locally.”Closer to homeTuscaloosa already has an established farmers market at the corner of Jack Warner Parkway and Greensboro Avenue, which recently opened again for this year’s growing season. Brown is one of the UA faculty members who pushed to create another farmers market on campus, which will begin Thursday from 3 to 6:30 p.m., at Canterbury Chapel on Hackberry Lane. The Tuscaloosa Farmers Market now opens at 6 a.m. Saturdays, and it will open on Tuesdays and Saturdays in May. In July, when produce is at its peak, it will be open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.Supporters see the farmers markets as a way for local farmers to meet the growing demands of their local community. Their hope is that if customers see and taste the difference between locally grown produce and produce in the grocery store, they’ll consider that even if they’re paying extra, the money goes to sustain local farmers. And that is a boost for the local economy.Eating locally is a nationwide trend slow to hit Alabama, but Brown said people are responding, especially on campus. He has students “knocking down the door” to volunteer for jobs working on local farms, including his.“The thing about farmers markets, good local food has a way of generating its own demand,” he said. “People who’ve never thought about food are going to start questioning why the tomatoes they buy at [a grocery store] taste like cardboard. Even if you don’t have any ethical or environmental questions, local food just has this appeal.”Closer to the landFor Grace, a sixth-generation Alabamian, it’s partly about supporting his home. There’s an eight- to 10-month growing period, so there aren’t many lean months.“And as a Southerner, I’m interested in a lot of things that have gone away with the homogenization of the country,” Grace said. “Eating seasonally, I’m getting into what it means to really wait on fried okra ... We’re not buying avocados, but my grandparents didn’t have avocados, either.”Grace advocates eating food produced within Alabama, from the seafood at the coast to the bel chevre goat cheese north in Elkmont.“Our primary argument is that small-scale, sustainable agriculture is a way to revitalize some of the rural areas of the state,” Grace said.One of the suppliers of goods for the campus farmers market will be Snow’s Bend Farm in Coker. David Snow and his partner, Margaret Ann Toohey, began converting it to organic farmland about five years ago; both studied the environment and natural resources in college at UA and Sewanee.Because the land belongs to Snow’s family, they invested in keeping it rich and healthy.“We don’t use any synthetic chemicals, so our fertilizers are mainly cover crops, grain manure, crimson clover and winter peas. In summer you plant grasses and summer flowers and purple-hull peas, which add nitrogen and organic matter to the soil,” she said.“There are no herbicides, so we have to do a lot of hoeing,” she said, laughing.Snow’s Bend Farm grows about 50 vegetables in different varieties, a lot of greens, root vegetables and typical summer crops. In fall, there’s sweet potatoes and winter squashes; in spring, strawberries, peas and fava beans.“It’s what we eat, so we have a lot of variety. We’re probably our best customers,” Toohey said. “We think about not having all this good stuff to eat, and that keeps us going.”The farm has two part-time employees, and volunteers who come and work for vegetables. Occasionally college students from Brown’s or other classes will come out to work in the summer, but mostly it’s Snow and Toohey, pulling 12 hour-plus days every day.“We have to get that cup of coffee in our hands before the sun rises,” she said. “It’s a lot of work, but there are jobs that are less work and not as rewarding.”Health and wealthAlthough there’s no scientific evidence to back this concept, she said healthier organic soil just seems to produce better-tasting and more nutrient-rich foods. On the economic side, they do keep track of grocery prices to try to stay competitive, but have to take into account how much time it takes to produce and harvest each product. In some cases, she said, they can do better than grocery prices. Zucchini is a bountiful crop for them; they can get by charging about $1 apiece. Recently, Toohey said, she saw some in a grocery story at two for $3.50.“And they were rotten,” she said. “In that case, we can easily beat that.”Marketing Snow’s Bend Farm is not a problem, she said.“We really don’t do much advertising. It pretty much sells itself, just by word of mouth. We have a Web site, mainly for people who already have heard of us,” she said.The produce goes to a handful of places, including members of their CSA, community-supported agriculture, group. In January, each member buys a share of the farm, and then gets a share of the produce each week. The list is full now, and a waiting list has been started for the fall. Another portion goes to Manna Grocery in Tuscaloosa, another to Birmingham restaurants, and the rest to farmers markets such as the one on Thursday at UA.“Between those, we can sell everything we grow,” Toohey said.

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